Create Depth of Field in PS

HI SXCers : In today’s tutorial we will learn a very cool trick to create an exceptionally convincing Depth of Field effect . Trick initially posted in the Photoshop users magazine but we will add a little trick of the NAPP an do it in the SXC way !! So lets check this out ! Visual steps / 5 minute edition / Photoshop CS min

Now we have our image under this red layer , the red means the area of the new “ alpha 1 layer “ and it also means the area the will not be affected by the blur lens effect . So next we need to add a gradient to erase part of the alpha channel and to get our blur area

So activate your gradient tool in the tool panel and your make a gradient

The gradient start point has be over 20 % inside your focused desired object , and the end pont is edge of your pic.

First you have to turn off he visibility of the “alpha 1 layer “ and select the RGB channel , then go to your layers palette , and select the Background Layer

B)

Next open the Lens Blur Filter panel ( Filter / Blur / Lens Bur )

In this panel selct "alpha 1" in the source box ,this is the name of the layer we have just created , if you named the layer differently it will appear as you named it

Now play with the radius scale to add the desired lens blur to your image .

-If you want to invert the blur click the invert box

Note : if you see a black and white gradient instead of your image , it is because you , didn’t select the background layer or because you didn’t deselect the channel layer we created . In case this happened , click cancel and repeat step 3

we've finished click okay and that was all !!!

Important Tip : If your desired focal point is in the centre of your image. you will have a hard time adding two the gradients (step2) , so in order to have these 2 gradients . 1) Selct new channel’s layer (alpha 1 ) then change it to mode screen blend( in the mode box at the top of Photoshop ) and VUALA !!! you will be able to add a second gradient

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial , This definitively will add a very convincing depth of field effect to your pics !

For any doubt or problem with this tutorial feel free to write to : ugaldew@yahoo.com I will answer asap

This is really very good. I would like to show my examples, exactly blurred as like a lence with different focusing and appartures blurrs the forground and background. See the example on my site : http://www.PixelToPixel.com at the following link :http://www.pixeltopixel.com/ToPutSelectiveItemInFo- cus.html

OKAY I am not getting it. After you create an Alpha Channel, your instructions say - "So select visualize the RGB".Where exactly do you select visualize the RGB? Perhaps my PC version of CS2 doesn't have this option?

To simulate lense blur you 1st have to know what depth of field is and how it is introduced in a photo.making a mask for using in lense blur filter is not that easy as just drawing a gradient,it takes a lot of work,depending on the picture.This is definately NOT a convincing Depth of Field effect.Its obviously a randomly blured image and a bad technique.You could just duplicate the layer,blur it and mask it with the same gradient to have the same effect in no time.

Duplicate layer, gausian blur, add layer mask, black out the area in focus. Ten seconds to create the same result?

20.posted by sohbet, Jun 20, 2009 3:30 PM

Great turotial, but instead of using the LENS BLUR i would use the GAUSIAN BLUR. Although the lens blur should be more natural the gausian one seems better, but thats a matter of taste i think.http://www.tcsohbet.net/http://www.cinselsohbetler.com/http://www.chatmix.org/ http://www.ceza.gen.tr/http://www.aysohbet.com/